Because Every Year Counts

At Bitter End Yacht Club (BEYC) earlier this month we saw a guy with a T-shirt that said

BEYC
Because
Every
Year
Counts

I think it was from some anniversary of BEYC's a few years back. I guess the commercial message of the slogan was "come to BEYC every year" but I thought it would be a good "thought for the day" as we look back on 2009 and look forward to 2010.

Because Every Year Counts. It really does. I become more aware of this the older I get. How many more years of good health and fitness are left to me to enjoy Laser sailing and travel and running and skiing and other active outdoor pursuits? What will I do to make the best of 2010?

Others may read a more altruistic message in the slogan. What did I do to make a difference in the life of others this year? What will I do to make my life count next year?

Don't blink. Life goes faster than you think.

What will you do to make 2010 count?

Snorkelers Do It Through A Tube

Bitter End Yacht Club (where Tillerwoman and I recently vacationed) isn't just for sailors, despite what you might think from the name. We met many guests there who never set foot on a sailboat. One of the most popular activities for a lot of these folk was snorkeling. BEYC take snorkelers out to local spots for short trips every day, and they organize longer trips several times a week too.

So, on Monday the third day of our stay at BEYC, we decided to do something different and went on the seductively titled Best of Virgin Gorda trip on BEYC's 59 foot power catamaran, Corinthian. Best of Virgin Gorda (that day) turned out to be

• snorkeling at Fallen Jerusalem
• snorkeling at The Baths
• hanging out at a bar in Spanish Town.

OK. BEYC aside, that probably is the best of Virgin Gorda.

I like snorkeling. Hanging out in the ocean, breathing through a tube, looking at all the pretty fishes and the pretty coral is very relaxing. I don't know much about fishes or coral but they sure are pretty. Hanging out at a bar afterwards can be relaxing too.

I like snorkeling... but it's not as much fun as sailing.

And that's all I have to say about snorkeling.

Tillerman Beats Robert

On the second full day of our recent stay at Bitter End Yacht Club on Virgin Gorda I won the Sunday Laser Regatta.

First regatta I had sailed since the New England Laser Masters in September 2008 (I think). First regatta I had won since my famous victory in July 2008 (I think). But it wasn't really a big deal. Come to think of it, none of my rare regatta wins are actually very big deals. This is how it went down...

I signed up for the Laser regatta the day before just to make sure I would get a boat. On my previous visits to BEYC there had always been a good turnout for the Sunday Laser races. You never know who will be there. Previous time I was at BEYC there was some dude who flew over in his helicopter from Tortola just to sail in the BEYC Laser regatta and beat Tillerman.

However, at the skippers' meeting it became apparent that there were going to be about ten boats sailing in the Hobie cat regatta (a mixture of Waves and Getaways) and just me and one other dude racing against each other in Lasers.

As the race officer explained the incredibly complicated "butterfly" course I sized up the other Laser dude. His name was Robert and he had an accent I couldn't quite place. A good 20 years younger than me. Suntanned. Fit. Looked like he spent a good amount of time each week in the gym. Definitely had that air of a fast Laser sailor. Hmmm. Wonder who he is?

Wait. Robert? Late 30's? Accent? Big fit dude? Oh no! It can't be him can it? As I said, you never know who will show up at BEYC.

Well it turned out that Robert must have been a pretty experienced sailor because he aced all the keelboat races on Sunday afternoon. But his accent wasn't Brazilian. It was Wisconsinite (aka Cheeseheadian). Easy to confuse the two, I know. And luckily for me it seemed he hadn't spent a whole lot of time sailing Lasers.

The first race was sailed in very light winds. About the only time in ten days at BEYC that it was light. I stood up in my boat and tried to look like I was checking out the breeze. Seemed to me that there was more pressure on the right side of the course but then my eyes aren't as good as they used to be so I could have been mistaken. All the cats and the two Lasers were starting together so I really wanted to have clear air too. I set up for a start near the starboard end of the line and, by some fluke, won that end of the line with good speed and clear air.

After a minute or two I was ahead and to windward of the whole fleet so I resisted the temptation to tack off for the possibly illusory stronger wind out in the right corner of the course. I just stayed between the opposition and the windward mark, arrived there with a healthy lead and extended it around the track. Race 1 to the Tillerman.

The first cat sailor across the finish line after me sailed up to congratulate me and asked where I had learned to sail so fast in light airs. "Oh, I spent about twenty years of summer Sunday mornings drifting around on inland lakes in New Jersey. Must have picked up the knack there," I said with what I hoped was the appropriate mix of modesty and casual confidence.

For the second race the conditions were totally different. The wind had strengthened considerably and had gone way left. Now the left end of the line was very favored. I watched how the fleet was setting up. All the cats and Robert seemed to be hanging out at the starboard end of the line so I thought, "What the hell. I'll try for a port tack start at the left end of the line."

Well, it turned out that everyone started on port tack because the wind had gone so far left that we were all laying the windward mark. But at least I was to windward of all the cats unlike poor Robert who was in the middle of a pack of cats and all their bad air. One Wave and one Getaway and I got away cleanly ahead of the fleet. The Wave was flying his windward hull and really motoring and he did beat me around the first mark.

At the second mark I gybed and headed up, only to discover one drawback I had forgotten about the Classic Laser. My traveler blocks weren't taped together and they collapsed and jammed. In my haste to free them I managed to detach them from each other. By the time I had connected them again the Getaway had passed me. And that's how we finished, me behind two cats but comfortably ahead of Robert.

So that's how I won the only Laser regatta I entered in 2009. Not a big deal really.

The Regatta Party and Prize-giving were scheduled for 5pm. Free beer was promised. The party would go on until all the beer was drunk, we were told.

Hmmm. Wonder what my prize will be?

Tillerwoman's Rules

I may have given regular readers of this blog the impression that my lovely wife, aka Tillerwoman, is not very fond of sailing. The truth of the matter is that really she does like sailing. Just on her terms.

On the first full day, Saturday, of our recent stay at the Bitter End Yacht Club on Virgin Gorda I reacquainted myself with the Classic Laser in the morning. Then in the afternoon I took my bride sailing on a Hobie Wave.

As I said, my wife really does like sailing. But she does have certain rules...

1. The air and water temperature must be around 80 degrees F, or warmer. This was not a problem in the BVI, even in December.
   
   
2. She must not have to sit anywhere near the edge of the boat.
   
   
3. She must not be required to perform any task whatsoever associated with actually sailing the boat.
   
   
4. She must have absolute confidence in the person driving the boat. I discovered on this first sail with her at BEYC this year that comments such as, "I've never gybed one of these things before... I think I'll give it a shot," or "Have you ever thought what you would do if I fell off the boat right now?" are not very helpful in creating that absolute confidence.
   

The Hobie Wave was perfect for us. About the same length as a Laser, but of course much more stable being a catamaran. Roughly the same speed and just as wet a ride. My bride was quite happy sitting on the trampoline while I handled the steering and trimming the single fully-battened sail.

We rode up and down the waves all over North Sound. Spray was flying everywhere and Tillerwoman was laughing and whooping and hollering and generally giving an impression that sailing was her most favorite thing in the whole world.

She really does like sailing. I'm sure.

Here Comes Santa Claus

Bon Nadal
Feliz Natal

Feliz Navidad
Nollaig shona duit
Frohliche Weihnachten
Joyeux Noel et bonne annee
Roomsaid Joule ja Head Uut Aastat
Hyvaa joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta
Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou
Wesolych swiat i szczesliwego nowego roku
Prettige kerstdagen en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar

Christmas Music

Three Mince Pies

Captain JP has thrown down the challenge. He wants to have something to read on Xmas Day when he is is "stuffed full of mince pies" and asks, "What better than the cream of the crop of other blogs?" He suggests that others should list "their top blog entries of 2009." So for Captain JP, one of my favorite boating bloggers of all time, here are Tillerman's Top 3 Posts of 2009.

1. Being basically a grumpy old geezer, I love a good rant. Ban Mommy Boats NOW is a good old rant at one of the greatest current threats to the spirit of Corinthian sailing, the grossly unfair and increasingly prevalent practice of sailors bringing surrogate "mommies" to wipe their noses and change their diapers at major regattas (metaphorically speaking of course.) "I'm mad as hell about Mommy Boats and I'm not going to take it any more."
   
   
2. I haven't sailed much this year, mainly because I'm a wimp... and lazy to boot. 10 Reasons Why I (Almost) Gave Up Sailing This Year is the sad pathetic tale of my inadequacies in this area. But it did generate a lot of very helpful comments on how to overcome my sailing funk.
   
   
3. Proper Course: The Laser Experience! was a response to another blogging challenge from Captain JP. It's all about how you can come and sail with me and learn the skills of mediocrity, laziness, ineptitude and procrastination that have made me the world-renowned Laser racing failure that I am today. Surprisingly nobody has yet taken me up on my offer. Maybe in 2010?

Bah! Humbug! And get off my lawn!

Classic Laser

I must be old school. Or, maybe just old. As a result of my recent trip to see the fat virgin, I've become all warm and fuzzy and nostalgic for the good old days of Laser sailing.

To explain why I will have to give you a history lesson. You see, there have been three eras in the evolution of Laser sail controls...

In the current "Modern Era" we racing Laser sailors are allowed to put pulleys and blocks and purchases in our vang and outhaul and cunningham so that we can adjust any of the controls at any time with a mere tweak of the line with our fingertips. We can constantly adjust the sail shape to optimize the boatspeed for every little change in wind or wave conditions. In fact we can spend so much time tweaking the sail controls that it is entirely possible to overlook a huge wind shift or, for that matter, a starboard tacker barreling down on us. Oops.

Prior to the Modern Era there was the "Silly Rope Tricks and Macrame Era". You were allowed to put some extra purchases in the control lines but the powers-that-be had ordained that you couldn't use any blocks for those purchases because that would be against the "Strict One-Design Principle of the Laser Class as Envisaged by the Original Designer", or something. So you bought slippery line and tied little bowlines in the control lines and looped the lines through the bowlines to achieve the necessary mechanical advantage and then had to replace the lines about every three weeks when the lines wore out. It was really very silly. Very silly indeed.

But in the beginning, when I raced my first Laser in the early 80's, it was still the "Classic Laser Era". 3:1 vang. Outhaul led to a cleat on the boom. Minimal purchase in the downhaul. It was pretty much a set-the-controls-and-go boat. It was very hard to adjust any of the controls while sailing, though we old-timers did eventually work out one or two tricks to help us....

You couldn't adjust the outhaul on any point of sail except close-hauled (couldn't reach that damn cleat on the boom); but sailing upwind if you used both hands, one either side of the cleat, you could just about tighten the outhaul. Likewise with the vang; there was a technique for standing up, bouncing your whole body weight on the middle of the boom with one hand and snugging up the vang line with the other hand. It was quite possible to capsize during either of these maneuvers but that was all part of the fun.

I was somewhat surprised to discover that the Lasers at the Bitter End Yacht Club (where I spent my recent vacation) were still essentially Classic Lasers. (I guess this is what is sold for recreational use even these days.) They also had un-battened sails with no windows made by UK-Halsey which presumably are more durable than the class-legal sails which are made from some material rejected as too flimsy by Victoria's Secret.

At first I was mildly perturbed by this. How would I be able to sail the boat without my 15:1 vang and 9:1 outhaul and 12:1 downhaul? (I have no idea if those are the actual numbers so please don't abuse me for being a weakling if you only have a 10:1 downhaul.)

But then I rationalized it. What the hell? I'm only on vacation. And if I race a Laser in the Sunday regatta it's just the same for everyone.

Then I went through the masochism stage. It's harder when I can't depower the sail in a big gust, but it's good for me to have to hike more. It's annoying that I can't put on enough vang for upwind sailing in heavy winds but what doesn't kill me makes me stronger.

And then after a few days I accepted it. It took me back to my youth. (Or comparative youth as I didn't start sailing a Laser until I was in my early 30's.) This was how the Laser was created by the Great Designer in the Sky. Never mind tweaking the control lines every few minutes, just sail the boat. Watch for the gusts and deal with them. Less is more. Simplicity is a virtue. I learned (again) to love the Classic Laser. I found myself tuning into the wind and the waves and hugely enjoying the experience of sailing the best little boat in the world in one of the best places to sail in the world. I recaptured my enthusiasm for Laser sailing that I almost lost this year.

I must be old school. Or, maybe just old.

Dear Tillerwoman, what I want for Christmas is...

Yes, I know we said we wouldn't buy each other expensive gifts this Xmas, but I really think it's time I moved up to a boat that's a bit bigger than my Laser.

This Volvo Open 70, "Puma Avanti II" (Puma training boat and formerly "ABN AMRO 2") would be an ideal training boat for a future campaign, or maybe I could even use her for corporate work. She comes complete with a full VOR 70 sail inventory and containerized workshop. She gained the longest distance run in 24 hours by a monohull clocking 563 nautical miles, an average of 23.4 knots of speed! She is listed at $845,538 and is currently just down the road at the Newport Shipyard. Maybe you could go and check her out when the snow stops?

Just a suggestion. Really, another diary would be just as much appreciated.

By the way, what would you like for Christmas dear?

Fleet Captain's Email

Due to the wind, snow and the general condition of the roads, Laser frostbiting is canceled for the day. See you all next Sunday, hopefully. Enjoy the snow and the holidays.

Damn. After racing last Sunday morning in sunshine, 80 degrees and 15 knots I was just longing for a blizzard sesh in zero visibility, 10 degrees F real feel, and 25 knots gusting 45.